Giovanni da Procida

Giovanni da Procida (* 1210 in Salerno ; † 1298 in Rome ; also Giovanni III. Da Procida ) was a doctor of the Middle Ages who served as a diplomat in the service of the Hohenstaufen and Aragonese , not least because of his role in the uprising of the Sicilians against France ( Sicilian Vespers ), became known.

Life

He was a versatile personality, a talented physician and successful doctor, a skilled politician and diplomat and a loyal supporter of the Hohenstaufen. His whole life, long for the time (he died in Rome at the age of 88), was devoted to important historical events in which he played the main character, not least the Palermo uprising (Sicilian Vespers). His birth around 1210 fell at a time of deep conflicts between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, which also determined his whole life.

Youth and Studies

Giovanni da Procida came from Salerno and, as Giovanni II., Was the son of Giovanni II. Da Procida and Clemenza Logoteta . The surname came from the main estates of the noble family: Procida Island , Monte di Procida and Misenum (all located on the Gulf of Naples) and other lands in the Campana. However, his short stays on Procida left no documentary traces due to his intensive political activities.

After training in literature and knightly handling of weapons, Giovanni studied at the medical school of Salerno , became known as a doctor at a young age and received a chair at this medieval college.

Time with Friedrich II.

Emperor Friedrich II. (1194–1250), the patron of the educational institution, became aware of Giovanni and made him his personal physician and advisor, a function that he carried out until Friedrich's death. ^{P. 224}

Time with Manfred

Giovanni also acted as tutor of Frederick's son Manfred (1232-1266) and later stayed at Manfred's side until his defeat and death in the Battle of Benevento in February 1266. In the same year he went to Viterbo ( City of the Popes ) north of Rome and arranged the marriage of his daughter to the Neapolitan Guelph Bartholomäus Caracciolo and then accompanied the Hohenstaufen army. After the defeat of the Hohenstaufen in the battle of Tagliacozzo in August 1268, he fled to Venice. Charles of Anjou (1227–1285) confiscated Giovanni's property and had the family expelled from the property. The wife and daughter were mistreated and one of his sons was murdered. ^{P. 224} .

Secret diplomacy

Giovanni da Procida traveled through Europe in 1269 or 1270 and campaigned for the restoration of Hohenstaufen rule in the Kingdom of Sicily .

The Sicilian legends ignore Giovanni's important political role in this dramatic time. Steven Runciman, on the other hand, showed that since Procida was at the center of a "great political conspiracy" in support of the Hohenstaufen (backed by the Byzantines and their Genoese allies) against Charles of Anjou and his allies the Pope. ^{P. 226}

Giovanni (or on his behalf one of his sons ^{p. 229} ) traveled to Sicily in 1279 and 1280 to stir up discontent against French rule under Charles of Anjou in favor of Peter. From there it went on to Constantinople to obtain the support of Emperor Michael VIII. Palaeologus (1224–1282). Michael refused to help the Aragonese king without papal consent and so diplomatic efforts turned to Rome, where he obtained the consent of Pope Nicholas III. who feared the increase in power of Charles in the Mezzogiorno .

John of Procida then returned to Barcelona. The result of these trips was the marriage of Byzantine gold and Genoese support with the Aragonese aspirations in Sicily.

Time with Peter III. from Aragón

The secret diplomacy of Giovanni da Procidas created the conditions for the uprising of 1282 ( Sicilian Vespers ), in the course of which Charles' crusade invasion fleet, which was anchored in Messina and was supposed to recapture Constantinople, was destroyed. With that, Constantinople was safe and Peter III. (1240–1285), who had taken Manfred's inheritance through marriage, was able to occupy the island of Sicily.

Peter appointed Giovanni da Procida on February 2, 1283 as his governor in Sicily. Giovanni was solely responsible when Peter moved to France later in the year because he was challenged by Karl. All this did not prevent the aged diplomat from continuing his ardent activities in the various European royal courts. On one of these business trips he died in Rome in 1298 at the old age of 88.

Afterlife

Giuseppe Verdi created a musical monument to Giovanni da Procida in his opera Les vêpres siciliennes .

literature

• Giuseppe La Mantia : Giovanni da Procida . In Enciclopedia Italiana 1933 ( online version at treccani.it)
• Salvatore Fodale :  Procida, Giovanni da. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 85:  Ponzone-Quercia. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2016.
• Isabel Skokan: The Sicilian Vespers in Germania and Italia . National myths and heroes in 19th century paintings. Lukas Verlag 2009, p. 142, ISBN 978-3-86732-036-8 (also university dissertation Freiburg 2007)
• Steven Runciman : The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century Cambridge University Press 1958, ISBN 0-521-43774-1 (English)
• Helene Wieruszowski : Politics and Culture in Medieval Spain and Italy Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, Roma 1971
• Walter Koller:  MANFREDI, re di Sicilia. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 68:  Malatacca-Mangelli. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2007.
• Franz Dölger, Peter Wirth (Hrsg.): Regesta of the imperial documents of the Eastern Roman Empire from 565-1453 Volume 3 (Regesta from 1204-1282), p. 140, CH Beck, 1977

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} see web link Procida Education Authority : Messere Giovanni da Procida
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} see literature Steven Runciman: The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century